Astronomers have been puzzling over a mystery on Neptune, and now they think they have unlocked its secret.
Today, just a patch hovers over the planet's south pole.Thanks to an analysis of nearly three decades' worth of Neptune observations captured by three space telescopes, scientists have determined the ice giant's diminished clouds may indicate that shifts in their abundance are in sync with the solar cycle, according to a recent study published in the journal Icarus.
"Our findings support the theory that the Sun's rays, when strong enough, may be triggering a photochemical reaction that produces Neptune's clouds."The magnetic field flips every 11 years as it becomes more tangled like a ball of yarn, according to NASA. With data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Lick Observatory in California, scientists observed 2.5 cycles of cloud activity over the 29-year period of Neptune observations — during which the planet's reflectivity increased in 2002 and dimmed in 2007.Neptune brightened again in 2015, before darkening in 2020 to the lowest level ever seen.
That connection was "surprising to planetary scientists because Neptune is our solar system's farthest major planet and receives sunlight with about 0.1 per cent of the intensity Earth receives," according to NASA.
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